ABSTRACT Background: Parent-child communication regarding sexual and reproductive health has the potential to reduce adolescent sexual risk-taking behaviours; yet parents find it difficult to discuss sexual issues with their children. In particular, parents fail to communicate with their adolescent children on sensitive issues of sexuality, like sexual intercourse, condom use, puberty, STIs, and physical development, but rather do so on less sensitive ones such as the effects of HIV. Communic...
ABSTRACT Introduction: About 80% of the world’s populations rely on traditional medicine. As a result, many countries (both developing and developed) are making efforts to integrate Traditional Medicine into mainstream healthcare delivery system. World Health Organisation (WHO) considers Traditional Medicine as one of the surest means to achieve universal health coverage. Since the early 1970s, Ghana has made tremendous efforts to integrate traditional/herbal medicine into the national heal...
ABSTRACT Background: Hand hygiene or hand washing is a well-known major infection control measure and has been mentioned by WHO as the most important hygiene measure in preventing the spread of infection. Schools like hospitals, have close, crowded environments that increase the risk of microbial cross- contaminations and transmissions. It has been observed that, there are high rates of infectious, gastrointestinal, neurocognitive and psychological illnesses in schools where water and sanitat...
ABSTRACT Background: Globally, anaemia in pregnancy has been a public health challenge, especially in developing countries like Ghana. Ghana has achieved remarkable decline in the prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy from 70% in 2008 to 45% in 2014. However, anaemia in pregnancy remains a threat to maternal and foetal outcomes. To reduce the risk, indigenous factors associated with anaemia must be identified. Few studies were conducted in Ghana, but no study was carried out in Keta Municipality...
ABSTRACT Background: Despite the encouraging outcomes, the use of the WHO SSC is poor, with compliance as low as about 12% in some areas. This study was conducted to investigate the factors that influence acceptability and utilization of the WHO SSC among surgical personnel in Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Ghana. Methods: A cross-sectional design that employed quantitative method of data collection was conducted among 186 surgical personnel at the KBTH in Ghana. Data was obtained from ...
ABSTRACT Background: Despite the encouraging outcomes, the use of the WHO SSC is poor, with compliance as low as about 12% in some areas. This study was conducted to investigate the factors that influence acceptability and utilization of the WHO SSC among surgical personnel in Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Ghana. Methods: A cross-sectional design that employed quantitative method of data collection was conducted among 186 surgical personnel at the KBTH in Ghana. Data was obtained from ...
ABSTRACT According to the World Health Organization report in 2012, 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide. Of these people, 39 million are blind and 246 have low vision. Ninety percent of these visually impaired live in developing countries. In Ghana the prevalence is reported to be 2%. Visual impairment is reported to cause a limitation in performing usual duties of the individual. Visual impairment hampers normal activities such as eating, writing, dressing, travelling from pla...
ABSTRACT Vision 2020 aims to eliminate avoidable blindness in the world by 2020 and targets the leading causes of avoidable visual impairment (WHO, 2010). Many eye and vision problems have no obvious signs and symptoms. Early diagnosis and treatment of eye and vision problems are important for maintaining good vision and eye health, and when possible, preventing vision loss. This study attempted to find the eye health seeking behaviours of workers in Ghana. A descriptive cross – sectional s...
ABSTRACT Introduction: Herbs have been used as an alternate form of treatment amidst the advent of orthodox therapies for health care. Herbs have been used as wellspring of potent remedies and have become an intrinsic part of various autochthonous cultures around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about eighty percent (80%) of rural populations residing in developing countries rely on herbal medicines for their health needs including its use during pregnancy. Studie...
ABSTRACT In recent years, iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) have emerged as an important public health problem in Ghana. In the Hohoe district the prevalence o f goitre was 26% (Asibey- Berko, et al 1994). Ghana has adopted the continuous use o f iodated salt as a solution to 1DD. This was supported by Act 523, which requires that, any salt meant for human and animal consumption in Ghana should be iodized. After the launching o f a national campaign against IDD at Hohoe in 1997, awareness on ...
ABSTRACT Background: Several neonatal deaths are recorded in developing countries such as Ghana, and some of these result from inappropriate neonatal care practices of mothers. The neonates of first-time mothers in particular are more at risk of receiving improper care due to lack of experience of the mothers. That is why mothers are encouraged to attend postnatal clinic. However, there is very little research information on the neonatal care practices of first-time mothers and the associatio...
ABSTRACT Every year, four million infants die within their first month of life, representing nearly 40 per-cent of all deaths of children under age 5 globally. Also, over 99% of all newborn deaths occurs in developing countries with about two-thirds of them taking place in the Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Therefore, understanding factors that influence newborn care practices in the home environment where most newborns are cared for is essential in order to develop appropriate approaches and i...
ABSTRACT Tuberculosis is one of the communicable diseases that infect people across the world. Various drugs are available for the effective management of the disease but most patients default treatment. Defaulting treatment is often attributed to the long duration of treatment and the stigma associated with the disease. Like other stigmatized diseases such as mental illness and HIV/AIDS, patients are discriminated by the family and community members. They are isolated and refused socializati...
ABSTRACT Teenage pregnancies and abortion cases reported to health facilities in the Tema Metropolis have been increasing over the years. Anecdotally, community pharmacies are also reporting of increases in request for medicines that have abortifacient properties. It is against this background that this study seeks to identify abortion help-seeking behaviours of females in the metropolis when saddled with unwanted pregnancies. The study focuses on identifying where women in the metropolis go ...
ABSTRACT The cost of providing basic health care in Ghana is escalating and it is beyond the ability of the government alone to finance health care. The introduction of the cash and carry system although had advantages, however for the majority of the people in the rural areas the system has not been of much help as money was not always available to pay for the cost of health care. Therefore, there has been the need to find alternative method of financing health care in Ghana. Mutual health i...